


Snap

by orphan_account



Category: Naruto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-04-27 08:52:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14421852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Unlike the Anime and Manga 6-tail cloak, this one only has one skeletal arm, three skeletal tails and three only cloak, no fox skull, and a ribcage and spine, as well as hipbones.





	Snap

'The quirky ones are the ones to be afraid of, not the quiet ones.

There is a saying- “It is better to speak with quiet confidence than to scream with obvious insecurity.”

Someone who screams in false bravado is possibly too insecure to cope- a hollow building mere moments from collapsing- and as such are to be quieted properly.

Not with blade or ability or fists- with companionship. The hollow building needs foundation and new innards- something to protect, to nurture- and should be given as such.

There are instances of those in need being given the opposite- their doubts and the hatred of others making their mass paper-thin, teetering over the brink into infinity- and they need the help desperately.

Abandoning these instances of human suffering create the highest chance of monsters being born from the rubble of that building. They may have a will to stand until they can regenerate their own flesh, but even will is broken eventually.

-

Naruto Uzumaki has reached his last. Last of what, you ask? 

Last of his everything- his hope, his will, his love, his dreams- and the decline is already in motion.

He leaves Konohagakure in the cloak of night, deciding to shatter alone after the guilt and emotional pain of the failed ‘Sasuke Retrieval Mission’. Blame was placed solely onto his shoulders for the failure, and the toll on those he considered friends became too much to bear.

 

He does what he’s learned- he runs. When he physically cannot move a foot forwards, he collapses just before exiting Wave Country, and slips into his dreamscape.

The fox offers him power for a price- never alone, never hungry, never tired. The price is the fox controls the body while he sleeps. He agrees, having seen no better solution.

He wails in agony as his chakra coils are refitted to produce the fox’s chakra. His body boils away into mist. He becomes the fox- or at least a reflection of it- and his pain ceases as his mind is twisted in a similar way.

The gate in which the Kyūbi is to be sealed is empty.

-

_Kyūbi-sama calls the form Tailed Beast Cloak Form 2. He has six tails in flesh and nine in spirit, skeletal limbs clacking as he walks on all fours. Kyūbi-sama tells him to seek out another of his kind- the Eight-Tails container- Killer Bee- and become his ally._

_He is taught Sage Mode by Kyūbi-sama as they travel- to sense the world, to shape it and harness it, to twist it into massive stone walls and miniscule shards of wind that can atomize flesh- and he masters it. He is permanently locked in sage mode, having been told to force it by Kyūbi-sama._

_He keeps traveling, mindless to the days and nights that pass._

-

Kurama finds his newest host the most interesting- he accepted the ‘offer’ easily- and did not crumble away like the others would have. The brat masters Sage Mode and so many other skills easily, provided it takes massive amounts of chakra.

He cannot make a single drop of water, even after hours of training- but monsoons come easily, twisting to life overhead in howling wind and roaring rains- and he gears his strange pet-prison-companion to be an extension of his will.

He trains into the boy a grudge against everyone who cannot respect a Jinchuuriki- the pinnacle of ‘human sacrifice’- and the boy learns grudges as well as he did as a young Bijuu. 

In the space the Bijuu can retreat to converse with each other, he jeers and taunts at the mindless Isobu, prodding him with tails and bijuudama. It eventually snaps him out of the illusion, and he immediately snaps his Jinchuuriki into order.

-

Konoha now lacks a Jinchuuriki, the nations learn, and do not act on it, as the last to assault the Hidden Leaf were torn to shreds and left smeared across the village’s outer walls by something too strong to even resist.

 Teams are deployed by each of the Hidden Villages to find their Jinchuuriki- if one can summon monsoons and tornadoes and firestorms, what horrors can more than one create?

-

_He finds the Killer Bee mentioned by Kyūbi-sama. He is a strange man who speaks in rhymes. The blade of the fishman he killed with the rest of the redcloud rests against his back. One of them had run during that fight, he realizes- Kyūbi-sama had said he was of no consequence, so he had left that man be._

_The Eight-Tails is horrified, Kyūbi-sama claims. Gyūki was a staunch supporter of friendship between container and contained, and the visage of a warped Cloak makes him sick to his ‘stomach’. He is given Kyūbi-sama’s name as either a gift or a token of affection- Kurama is so kind to him, even like this- and he holds the secret close to his heart always._

-

“What manner of twisted mockery is this, Kurama?!” Gyūki roars at his brother. “That child will never be whole after what you’ve done to him!” His tails thrash in their shared plane, forest and sea and desert churning with his disgusted fury.

Kurama says nothing, the landscape around him burning away into steam and glass and ash. His brother grins with the cruel glint befitting a fox in his eye, and he speaks. “I fixed him, Gyūki. He was broken by his life and his people- lost and alone- and I gave him purpose and company at my side. He is nothing but grateful to me, and I am finally loose enough in my chains to enjoy this world.”

Gyūki snarls and makes contact with Bee. “Bee,” he begins, “Kyūbi has broken the child. We need to separate them, _now.”_

_———_

  _The two are not like Kurama-sama and himself. They lack the bond- each is independent together, as opposed to loyal servant and powerful master- and they’re taken down easily. Kurama-sama tells him not to destroy them, and so he doesn’t._

_A large containment cell rests within the temple- made to hold Bijuu, no doubt- and Kurama-sama has him glean the floors and walls with elemental power. The temple shines after they’re done- properly taken care of, now- and he sleeps beneath the statue of Kurama-sama._

———

 A few years pass. The Eight-Tails Jinchuuriki reports that their target is within the Tailed Beast Temple, and what remains of Team Seven, Team Ten, and Team Eight gather to confront him. On the way, they cross paths with one of Orochimaru’s disciples and his team, which goes about as well as you’d expect it to. They make a shaky alliance and strive to find the wayward Nine-Tails Jinchuuriki.

 -

Within the temple, death awaits. Killer Intent wafts through the air in thick waves. The first to go in are Jūgo and Suigetsu, who track the Jinchuuriki down, finding him within a room meant to hold Bijuu.

Jūgo’s strange Sage Mode is no match for the might of a Sage Bijuu. He is torn to shreds by claws of bone and liquified by a Sage Tailed Beast Rasengan. His companion fares no better, being incinerated in moments by a gout of white-hot flame, his corpse little more than atomized carbon and steam.

The Jinchuuriki goes back to sleep.

-

Gaara joins the next expedition into the temple, walking alongside Kakashi and Sakura. They find Naruto laying on his stomach in the hallway, drooling molten glass and playing with it in what seems to be vague amusement. 

Shukaku pulls him into their shared space.

_Gaara, the kid’s nuttier than I am. He’s completely gone- Kurama’s fucked up his head **bad** , and there’s a chance that he’s unfixable._

He nods and drifts back up into reality, slowly approaching someone he could call friend. “Naruto,” Gaara murmurs, catching his attention, “do you remember me? Gaara?” The cloaked monster smiles, gaping white chasm of its smile stretching from side of head to side of head. 

 **“S** _h_ ** _u_ k**a _k_ ** _u_ ,” **it burbles joyfully through the molten glass. “ **Br** o _th **er.”**_

He gets closer, and takes care not to touch the glass which has begun to rise from the floor in tiny, hollow orbs. “Yes, Naruto. Me, Gaara. I’m here.”

The glass orbs begin to fill with tiny Bijuudama, red and blue chakra spinning together into tiny purple fragments of apocalyptic might. Chains of metal burn into existence, linking them together in a necklace of sealed power. 

It reaches down and picks up the necklace, before loping over on a hand and two legs, the other arm holding the Bijuudama necklace out to take. **“F** _ **o** r b_r **o** t _he_ **r,”** he gurgles. “ **M** _ **a** ke th_in ** _gs_  ri**g _h **t.”**_

———

 _Broth- **Gaara** takes the necklace and puts it on. He smiles at me, pain in his eyes. “_ Thank you, Naruto. I love it.” _I go back to the glass. Kurama-sama is without judgement of gifts amongst the other Jinchuuriki- he supports it, even- and I am grateful._

 _The other two are still here- one reeks of U_ ** _ch_ i**ha. _I snarl and whip around to the scent. A grey-haired man stands there. He looks lost in grief, and Kurama-sama grins._ **He knew your father, gaki.** _I watch the man. The man watches back with that disgusting redredred eye._

 _His voice is choked with anguish and grief._ “Naru-kun, we found you, huh?”

 _Found?_ _I was tired of running._

 _That’s not what comes out, though- what comes out is a snarl. “_ ** _Uc_ hi**h _a...”_ _Realization strikes the man, and he slides the metal headband over the eye. I calm a little, the scent subsiding._ _I pad over to him and rub my face against his leg._ _He reaches down and scratches behind my ears._

 

_Kurama-sama is quiet, but he seems... solemn. Mournful, almost. His eyes are glassy, almost with tears._

**Father,** _he murmurs to himself._ **What would you think of this world, now?**

 

_In the real world, the other one is kneeling next to me and crying. Why does the pink hair look familiar? The girl’s sadness is almost palpable from this distance, sweet and bitter. I don’t move, and she grabs hold of me in a hug. It is cool in comparison to my own body heat._

_They start to leave. Some part of me wants to go with them. Another wants to stay here. A third wants to taste their screams. Countless others **want** and **need** and argue for their option. Kurama-sama is the deciding factor-_

_The wall behind them explodes, and a red man enters. He has eyes- purple, ringed, whispering power uncontainable- and all of me wants his eyes._

_I scream and charge him. The orange-haired men around him attack me, but they fall apart easily under raw chakra frying their veins at a touch. Red man makes a black sword, which I duck. Two of my bone-tails fly through his ribs and crush his heart. He gurgles in agony._

_Kurama-sama laughs darkly, and the cloak tatters around my eyes. The cloaked tails grow claws and tear them out._ _I want to scream against the lack of sight, but Kurama-sama restores my vision moments later._ _I stand over the eyeless red man. What little of his chakra remains leaks from his eye sockets._

_The glass reflects my image back to me- the purple-ringed eyes are in my sockets, and the cloak covers all of me up again._

_I reach a hand out into the man’s body. A strange ghost comes out and into me- I know how to use them now- the eyes, Rinnegan, can do so much in so little time._

_I turn to the two still in the temple, eye-man and the pink one. They look amazed, but why? I follow them out into the light outside._ _I hope whatever happens will go well._ _Kurama-sama is without comment._

**Author's Note:**

> Unlike the Anime and Manga 6-tail cloak, this one only has one skeletal arm, three skeletal tails and three only cloak, no fox skull, and a ribcage and spine, as well as hipbones.


End file.
